System and method for dynamically updating web page displays

• US 7,698,632 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2005
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twitter Inc (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tiffany, Barbara Q.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): Blackwell; James H
• Application Number:
  US11/060,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20060184869A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,881 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A system and method for dynamically updating a web page display. Web pages modification is accomplished by receiving a uniform resource locator (URL) message having embedded application parameters, selecting desired portions of the application parameters, modifying the web page with the selected portions, and displaying the modified web page to the user. Application parameters may be search criteria used to find the search results, and the search criteria may be displayed along with the search results. The search results may include a number of entries each having an entry name and corresponding information location. A serial list of entries is received and a web page listing the entry names in an organized fashion is dynamically created. Hyperlinks between each entry name and its corresponding information location are then created, which allows information at the information location to be displayed when the corresponding entry name is selected.

Claims

1. A method of creating a modified web page from a web page that was acquired in response to a URL message having a uniform resource locator (URL) indicating a remote computing device, the URL message also having application parameters, the method comprising:

a browser constructing the URL message, said browser constructing the URL message comprising;

said browser interacting with a user through an input device of a computer system to identify the URL of the remote computing device,

said browser interacting with the user to define the application parameters, and

said browser creating the URL message from the URL and the application parameters which results in the URL message comprising the URL and the application parameters,

said URL in the URL message identifying the remote computing device;

a parser of a display modification device receiving the URL message from the browser and extracting application parameters from the application parameters in the U-RL message;

a page modifier of the display modification device receiving the extracted application parameters from the parser;

sending the URL message to the remote computing device identified by the URL;

an entry extractor of the display modification device receiving the web page returned from the remote computing device after the web page had been generated by the remote computing device from the extracted application parameters received by the remote computing device, said web page comprising a plurality of entries;

said page modifier acquiring the web page from the entry extractor;

said page modifier merging the extracted application parameters with the plurality of entries into the acquired web page to create a modified web page; and

a processor of the computer system displaying the modified web page on a display device of the computer system,

wherein each entry comprises an entry name and a corresponding information location, and wherein the method further comprises before said displaying;

a calculation unit of the display modification device counting the entries to result in an entry total;

said calculation unit determining from the entry total, a maximum number of entry names per column to be displayed being a column maximum, and a maximum number of entries per page, being a page maximum;

said page modifier modifying the acquired web page to display up to the page maximum entries in a columnar form, having a defined number of columns, with each column having up to the column maximum number of entry names per column; and

said page modifier modifying the acquired web page to link the plurality of entry names with their corresponding information locations, such that when an entry name is selected, information at the corresponding information location is displayed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein an application parameter of the application parameters consists of a search criteria command and a search criteria argument.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises said processor displaying on the display device a result page, wherein the result page comprises an address bar that includes the URL, the search criteria command, and the search criteria argument, wherein the result page further comprises a text line below the address bar, and wherein the text line includes search result identification text followed by the search criteria argument.

4. A computer system comprising a processor, a computer readable memory unit coupled to the processor, an input device, and a display device, said memory unit containing program code configured to be executed by the processor to implement a method of creating a modified web page from a web page that was acquired in response to a URL message having a uniform resource locator (URL) indicating a remote computing device, the URL message also having application parameters, the method comprising:

a browser constructing the URL message, said browser constructing the URL message comprising;

said browser interacting with a user through the input device to identify the URL of the remote computing device,

said browser interacting with the user to define the application parameters, and

said browser creating the URL message from the URL and the application parameters which results in the URL message comprising the URL and the application parameters, said URL in the URL message identifying the remote computing device;

a parser of a display modification device receiving the URL message from the browser and extracting application parameters from the application parameters in the URL message;

a page modifier of the display modification device receiving the extracted application parameters from the parser;

sending the URL message to the remote computing device identified by the URL;

an entry extractor of the display modification device receiving the web page returned from the remote computing device after the web page had been generated by the remote computing device from the extracted application parameters received by the remote computing device, said web page comprising a plurality of entries;

said page modifier acquiring the web page from the entry extractor;

said page modifier merging the extracted application parameters with the plurality of entries into the acquired web page to create a modified web page; and

displaying the modified web page on the display device, wherein each entry comprises an entry name and a corresponding information location, and wherein the method further comprises before said displaying;

a calculation unit of the display modification device counting the entries to result in an entry total;

said calculation unit determining from the entry total, a maximum number of entry names per column to be displayed being a column maximum, and a maximum number of entries per page, being a page maximum;

said page modifier modifying the acquired web page to display up to the page maximum entries in a columnar form, having a defined number of columns, with each column having up to the column maximum number of entry names per column; and

said page modifier modifying the acquired web page to link the plurality of entry names with their corresponding information locations, such that when an entry name is selected, information at the corresponding information location is displayed.

5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein an application parameter of the application parameters consists of a search criteria command and a search criteria argument.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises displaying on the display device a result page, wherein the result page comprises an address bar that includes the URL, the search criteria command, and the search criteria argument, wherein the result page further comprises a text line below the address bar, and wherein the text line includes search result identification text followed by the search criteria argument.

7. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program code stored therein, said computer readable program code containing instructions configured to be executed by a processor of a computer system to implement a computer program product of creating a modified web page from a web page that was acquired in response to a URL message having a uniform resource locator (URL) indicating a remote computing device, the URL message also having application parameters, the method comprising:

a browser constructing the URL message, said browser constructing the URL message comprising;

said browser interacting with a user through an input device of the computer system to identify the URL of the remote computing device,

said browser interacting with the user to define the application parameters, and

said browser creating the URL message from the URL and the application parameters which results in the URL message comprising the URL and the application parameters, said URL in the URL message identifying the remote computing device;

a parser of a display modification device receiving the URL message from the browser and extracting application parameters from the application parameters in the URL message;

a page modifier of the display modification device receiving the extracted application parameters from the parser;

sending the URL message to the remote computing device identified by the URL;

an entry extractor of the display modification device receiving the web page returned from the remote computing device after the web page had been generated by the remote computing device from the extracted application parameters received by the remote computing device, said web page comprising a plurality of entries;

said page modifier acquiring the web page from the entry extractor;

said page modifier merging the extracted application parameters with the plurality of entries into the acquired web page to create a modified web page; and

displaying the modified web page on a display device of the computer system, wherein each entry comprises an entry name and a corresponding information location, and wherein the method further comprises before said displaying;

a calculation unit of the display modification device counting the entries to result in an entry total;

said calculation unit determining from the entry total, a maximum number of entry names per column to be displayed being a column maximum, and a maximum number of entries per page, being a page maximum;

said page modifier modifying the acquired web page to display up to the page maximum entries in a columnar form, having a defined number of columns, with each column having up to the column maximum number of entry names per column; and

said page modifier modifying the acquired web page to link the plurality of entry names with their corresponding information locations, such that when an entry name is selected, information at the corresponding information location is displayed.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein an application parameter of the application parameters consists of a search criteria command and a search criteria argument.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises displaying on the display device a result page, wherein the result page comprises an address bar that includes the URL, the search criteria command, and the search criteria argument, wherein the result page further comprises a text line below the address bar, and wherein the text line includes search result identification text followed by the search criteria argument.